Generalized Cardioid Distributions for Circular Data Analysis

The Cardioid (C) distribution is one of the most important models for modeling circular data. Although some of its structural properties have been derived, this distribution is not appropriate for asymmetry and multimodal phenomena in the circle, and then extensions are required. There are various general methods that can be used to produce circular distributions. This paper proposes four extensions of the C distribution based on the beta, Kumaraswamy, gamma, and Marshall–Olkin generators. We obtain a unique linear representation of their densities and some mathematical properties. Inference procedures for the parameters are also investigated. We perform two applications on real data, where the new models are compared to the C distribution and one of its extensions.

Endogenic retroviruses of PERV A/C in genome of Ukrainian pigs and their correlation with the level of fat in carcasses

The article presents the analysis of the PERV retrovirus subtypes A and C frequency in populations of Ukrainian and foreign breed pigs. Different frequencies of the PERV A/C genome presence in animals of the studied breeds were established. The largest relative number was observed in the group of wild pigs (86%), the smallest was in the groups of Poltava meat and Piétrain breeds. Animals free of both virus subtypes were found in all study groups. The article considers the hypothesis of an increase in the frequency of PERV retrovirus in the pigs’ genome during domestication. Its integration caused a gene mutation responsible for fat deposition which led to increased fat amount in carcasses and could be picked up by selection in the process of creating breeds. However, there is no obvious link between the spread of the virus in modern breeds in different areas of productivity. Also, there is no association between carcass fat amount and the presence of PERV in the genome. It is established that the information on the PERV A/C distribution in pig breeds hold in Ukraine is useful in terms of the possibility of using each of them for xenotransplantation. Also, this information can be used to justify the selection of founding breeds in order to create lines of pigs free from the endogenous retrovirus genome.

The first species of Scydmoraphes (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae) in China

Scydmoraphes Reitter, 1891 is a Palaearctic genus with 120 species (Schülke & Smetana 2015; Jałoszyński 2015a); its morphological structures were illustrated by Jałoszyński (2015b, c). Distribution of over 90 species is restricted to one country in the western part of the region, the remaining species occur in a few countries each, also mainly in the western Palaearctic. Only three species have a broader distribution within Europe, each in about 20 countries. In Asia, most species are restricted to its western areas (mainly Turkey), with only two species recorded from South Asia (northern Pakistan), one broadly distributed Eurasian species (S. minutus Chaudoir, 1845) found in the Russian Far East, and one species inhabiting the Japanese mainland (Jałoszyński 2004; Schülke & Smetana 2015). The first member of Scydmoraphes is here recorded from China.

C+ distribution around S 1 in ρ Ophiuchi

We analyze a [C II] 158 μm map obtained with the L2 GREAT receiver on SOFIA of the reflection nebula illuminated by the early B star S 1 in the ρ Oph A cloud core. This data set has been complemented with maps of CO(3–2), 13CO(3–2), and C18O(3–2), observed as a part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Survey, with archival HCO+(4–3) JCMT data, as well as with [O I] 63 and 145 μm imaging with Herschel/PACS. The [C II] emission is completely dominated by the strong emission from the photon dominated region (PDR) in the nebula surrounding S 1 expanding into the dense Oph A molecular cloud west and south of S 1. The [C II] emission is significantly blueshifted relative to the CO spectra and also relative to the systemic velocity, particularly in the northwestern part of the nebula. The [C II] lines are broader toward the center of the S 1 nebula and narrower toward the PDR shell. The [C II] lines are strongly self-absorbed over an extended region in the S 1 PDR. Based on the strength of the [13C II] F = 2–1 hyperfine component, [C II] is significantly optically thick over most of the nebula. CO and 13CO(3–2) spectra are strongly self-absorbed, while C18O(3–2) is single peaked and centered in the middle of the self-absorption. We have used a simple two-layer LTE model to characterize the background and foreground cloud contributing to the [C II] emission. From this analysis we estimated the extinction due to the foreground cloud to be ~9.9 mag, which is slightly less than the reddening estimated toward S 1. Since some of the hot gas in the PDR is not traced by low-J CO emission, this result appears quite plausible. Using a plane parallel PDR model with the observed [O I](145)/[C II] brightness ratio and an estimated FUV intensity of 3100–5000 G0 suggests that the density of the [C II] emitting gas is ~3–4 × 103 cm−3.

Radiocarbon Dating Historical Mortars: Lime Lumps and/or Binder Carbonate?

ABSTRACTLime lumps and bulk mortars show different 14C contamination when analyzed in several CO2 fractions isolated from the effervescence of an ongoing hydrolysis reaction. Age profiles of both materials are therefore highly complementary and together they can provide a reliable date. Furthermore, they can also reveal the complexity of the radiocarbon (14C) distribution within the mortar and thus prevent over-interpretation of the data. The lime lump versus bulk mortar dating data presented here has been collected over 22 years, with only a small fraction of the results so far published internationally. Since there has been an increasing interest in mortar dating over recent years with a special focus on lime lumps, and since many laboratories have just begun mortar dating experiments, we wish to present some of the extensive data that already exist. Previously published data from 15 lime lumps (including 34 14C measurements from sequential dissolution) and 43 new 14C measurements from 17 lime lumps are presented here. The samples are from medieval Finland and Sweden, classical Rome and medieval Italy, and the Roman Jerash (Gerasa), Jordan.